


Ghosts

by Miasen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, But mostly not?, Death, Ghosts, Kissing, M/M, Romance, a little sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 04:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5361059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miasen/pseuds/Miasen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people just move on the very moment they die, but some linger in this world for days or weeks or months. Kageyama had expected to die, had waited for it, but he had not expected to wake up as a ghost, nor had he expected to be greeted by a orange-haired boy walking right through the wall of his room.</p><p>“You’re new!” the boy said, as if walking through walls wasn’t weird at all. “I’m Hinata Shouyou!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Written from this prompt by TheGeekyLibrarian: "Ghost A and Ghost B falling for each other, talking about their past lives and how they died + trying to learn how to kiss."
> 
> Volleyball birbs as ghosts, how could I not? <3

_Bright lights. Deep humming sounds. Warm._

Kageyama blinked heavy eyelids and held an arm up to shield his eyes from the glare assaulting them. The sounds faded, and it was no longer warm, but the bright lights were still there. He squinted under his arm, trying to clear his vision.

Where was he? He couldn’t remember, didn’t know…

Muffled sounds, talking. A woman.

He looked up again, eyes adjusting to the brightness. A white room, two beds, a curtain separating them. He knew this room. Had spent the last weeks here, in that bed by the window.

The hospital. He was in the hospital, but no longer in the bed. Had he rolled out of it? Why weren’t the doctors coming, he must’ve dislodged needles and monitors if he did.

Why was there no more pain?

Kageyama got to his feet, surprised to find that they could once again hold his weight. He hadn’t been able to walk for weeks. Too weak. He looked down at himself and didn’t see the frail body he had last seen when he still had the energy to stand up. He looked like himself again, strong. Gone where the hospital gown, he was wearing white linen pants and a white shirt. His feet were bare, but he wasn’t really cold. He didn’t feel much at all really.

He walked towards the bed, but when he peered down on it he saw a girl there. Cheeks pale and sunken, brown hair messy, eyes closed. She looked as he had done; ravaged by an illness in a fight he had been losing. Why was he feeling better all of a sudden, and why was there someone else in his bed? He knew he wouldn’t be well, that the cancer had spread too far, had resigned to end his days in that bed, wasting away.

The door to the room opened, and as Kageyama’s head snapped towards it he saw a nurse entering. He recognised her, had seen her come and go, topping off his medication, offering soothing words. She was kind he guessed, but he hadn't really had the energy to notice much beyond that.

“Excuse me,” Kageyama said, but the nurse just stepped right towards the bed to check on the girl, ignoring him completely.

He tried again, but she finished the check up and turned to leave, not acknowledging him at all.

Kageyama frowned and stepped right in front of her.

He didn’t feel a thing as she stepped through him and left the room.

Kageyama’s eyes widened as he lifted a hand to his chest. She had walked through him, as if he wasn’t even there. “Oh.”

No longer sick, no more pain and suffering. There, but no really. Someone else in his bed.

Was he… Had he…

He didn’t get to finish the thought because the next moment someone popped out of the wall.

“Wha…” Kageyama started as a short boy with bright orange hair grinned up at him. He was wearing the same white pants and shirt he was, and he’d walked right out of the wall as if he wasn’t corporeal at all. _Oh_.

“You’re new!” the boy said, as if walking through walls wasn’t weird at all. “I’m Hinata Shouyou!”

Kageyama stared at him, unsure what he should say. He was a little confused by everything.

“What’s your name?” the other asked.

“I’m Kageyama Tobio,” Kageyama said hesitantly.

The other—Hinata—looked him up and down as if to assess him. “Gwaaah!" he said, as if that was an actual word Kageyama was supposed to understand. "You're tall. How old are you even? There’s only supposed to be kids around here you know!” He lifted a hand up to his own head and then dragged it towards Kageyama, as if he was measuring the difference of height between them. His handed ended up on Kageyama's forehead, which was cheating, because this kid wasn't nearly that tall and had clearly not kept the hand going in a straight line at all.

Kageyama wasn’t sure if he should be offended or not by the fact that the other thought he was too tall to be under eighteen. “I’m sixteen, but I’ll be seventeen in a month,” he said.

“Woah! We’re the almost the same age then! I’m seventeen already.”

Hinata looked way too proud at that, as if it was a competition and he had just won. Kageyama crossed his arms and looked away.

“I’m glad you stayed, I was so bored!” Hinata said, ignoring Kageyama’s reaction completely.

“Stayed?” Kageyama mumbled.

“Yeah, most people move on you know, so it gets a bit lonely around here. I guess there are maybe twenty of us altogether, but the others are so boring.”

“Others?”

Hinata laughed. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

Kageyama frowned, and then looked away again. He didn’t like that the other laughed at him like that.

“Dumbass, we’re ghosts!”

XXX

The sky was washed in pinks and purples and yellows streaking above the city. Kageyama pulled his knees closer to his chest and rested his chin atop them, watching the sky grow from dark to light. He hadn’t really done this before, just sat and watched the sun rise, but since he didn’t need to sleep now that he was a ghost and all he might as well. Hinata was sitting next to him, quiet for once as he too was captivated by the play of colours.

The last days had mostly been spent walking around the hospital trying to get used to the fact that he was dead. He wasn’t surprised that his cancer had killed him, had known for a while that there wasn’t really any way he was going to come out of this alive, so he wasn’t really sad about the fact that he died. He hadn’t really been prepared to come back a ghost though. He hadn’t thought too much about what dying entailed, but he hadn’t imagined this, haunting a hospital with an energetic red-head by his side.

Not that they were really haunting it, more just… hanging out.

He guessed it could be worse; it wasn’t as if his life had been very good at the end anyways. He’d been too sick to go to school for months, and too sick to play volleyball for even longer. There wasn’t really much to care about when he couldn't even play volleyball, so he didn’t miss being alive, not if alive meant lying in that bed, hurting.

“What are you thinking about?” Hinata said and nudged him with an elbow.

“Volleyball,” Kageyama muttered.

“Gwaaa?!” Hinata exclaimed. His sudden outbursts had surprised Kageyama at first, but he’d gotten used to it quickly. It wasn’t very hard to understand what he meant with his exclamations anyways. Hinata was a pretty easy person to understand really. He said what he meant, didn’t keep anything from him, and that was kind of nice. People had been so insistent on sparing Kageyama from any kind of pain that they hadn’t told him much of anything lately. They didn’t even admit that he was dying when he asked, which was stupid, because he clearly had been.

“I love volleyball!” Hinata continued, and that sure captured Kageyama’s attention. He looked towards Hinata, leaning closer.

“You do?”

“Yeah! I watched it all the time. I really wanted to play, but there was no team in our school, so I mostly just did it with myself. Did you play on a team?” Hinata was leaning closer to him, eyes wide, and lips pulled into a grin.

“Yeah. All through middle school, and then a year in high school. Before…” He grew quiet and looked away. That year in high school had probably been one of the best in his life. Just like in middle school he didn’t really get along too well with his teammates, they thought he was _too intense_ , but he got to play almost every day, and his teammates were better, and then didn’t yell at him too much when he got frustrated because they couldn't keep up with his tosses.

He had tried to ignore it at first when he got sick. Blamed the bruises on the volleyball, and his fatigue on the increase in practicing, but then he couldn’t ignore it anymore, and then it was too late. The cancer spread through him like wildfire, and the treatments couldn't really do much other than stave off death for a while longer.

“Woah, I wish I could’ve seen you play. You’re so tall, you are probably really good,” Hinata said, and his eyes were practically sparkling.

Kageyama wished Hinata could have seen him play, because that meant he could play again. He guessed he’d never get to do that now, unless the place he went to when he stopped being a ghost was some kind of volleyball heaven. He’d like that. He could show Hinata how to toss a ball.

“I’m not tall like you, but I can jump like bwaah, so I’d still be able to play if there had been a team,” Hinata said and Kageyama frowned. Hinata was like super short, no way could he jump high enough to spike the ball over the net or block it.

They sat in silence for a while, watching pink and orange turn into the soft blue of day, Kageyama stretching his legs out so they dangled over the edge of the roof. There was enough stories down that he would have died if he fell off the edge, but since he was already dead he wasn't too worried.

Hinata had turned around so he was lying on his stomach, eyes focused on the roof rather than the sky, one finger stretched out to almost touch a small stick that had someone ended up here. His tongue was caught between his teeth as he stared at the stick, and then he pushed his finger forward, and Kageyama saw the stick lurch, as if someone had bumped it.

His eyes widened. Hinata just touched the stick and made it move! Whenever Kageyama has tried touching stuff he just went right through them. He’d tried plenty of times, because it got kind of boring being a ghost, and Hinata sometimes snuck into rooms to watch really stupid TV shows, so he entertained himself by trying to knock over glasses of water and magazines. He’d seen ghosts do it on TV, make stuff fall over and scare people. Not that he really want to scare people, but it was something to do at least.

“How did you do that?” he asked, forgetting about sunrises completely as he crawled close to Hinata, peering down at where the stick landed ten centimetres away from Hinata’s finger. Hinata beamed up at him.

“I’ve been practicing! One of the other ghosts taught me right before he vanished. You just gotta really concentrate. He said that we can become corporeal if we want; it just takes a lot of focus. Like, we don’t fall through the floor because our minds or spirits or whatever knows that would be bad because we’d just fall and fall and bwah! Get lost in the middle of the earth or space or whatever, but we don’t really need to touch anything anymore, so we have to really, really focus on it.” The words poured out of him, half of it sounding like he was reciting someone else, and half just Hinata. There was a lot of hand gestures to emphasis his points. Kageyama wasn't sure he knew what he was talking about, and he wasn't sure Hinata did either, but he knew that he wasn't going to vanish into space, and that he might be able to move things if he tries. He wasn't sure if he was going to need to ever do that, but it might be good to know, just in case. Maybe he could change the channels on the TV so he can watch something he wanted to watch, when the TV in the waiting room isn’t occupied.

“Show me,” he said.

 

XXX

 

Kageyama glared at the stone, as if that was supposed to make it work. This shouldn't be so hard. It was a little pebble, he should be able to move it, but whenever he thought his finger was going to touch it _for real this time_ it just went right through it, like a… like a ghost. Hinata was better than him at this, and it annoyed Kageyama. He didn't like not being good at something. The pebble was all round like a volleyball, but so small compared. He could handle a volleyball so well, could make it go just where he wanted it, but he couldn't get this pebble to move at all.

He saw another pebble fly past him, flicked across the roof by Hinata as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

Kageyama crossed his legs and arms and looked away from the pebble. He heard Hinata laugh, and snapped towards him, chewing him out for laughing at him. “You can probably just do it better because you’ve been like this for longer!”

“Maybe I’m just better than you!”

“You’re not, I’m going to do it soon, and then I’ll be able to move all kinds of things.”

Hinata was exuberantly happy most of the time, but he wasn't shy to yell at Kageyama if he didn’t like what he was saying or doing.

They traded insults for a while, Hinata resorting back to _idiot-Kageyama_ most of the time. Kageyama soon forgot what they were arguing about, and it appeared that Hinata did as well, so they were just yelling at each other, jumping to their feet to get some more force behind their yells.

Someone else might have pointed out that the argument was probably mostly fuelled by Kageyama’s frustrations on not being able to instantly do something he set his mind to and maybe about being a ghost and not knowing what that meant or what was going to happen to him. Kageyama didn’t really think much, he just acted, yelling and finding that it was kind of nice to just scream. It wasn’t like anyone could hear them anyways, apart from the others ghosts. But he didn’t really care about them. He’d met them and then quickly discarded them as anyone he’d be willing to spend time with. They’d done the same to him, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Stupid Kageyama!” Hinata’s eyes were flaring and his hair bounced as he yelled. That stupid orange hair that was all over the place. Stupid Hinata that was yelling at him, even though he couldn’t even remember why anymore. He reached out and grabbed the top of Hinata’s head, pushing down on those stupid curls.

“Ow ow ow,” Shouyou yelled, even though it wouldn’t really hurt much, because they were ghosts and things just passed straight through—

Kageyama stumbled as his hand suddenly whooshed straight through Hinata’s head. He had touched Hinata’s hair. Had felt soft curls against his fingers. He’d managed to focus enough to touch, only he hadn’t really been focusing on touching, he’d just been focusing on pushing down on those stupid curls. “Oh,” he said, looking at his hand.

Hinata just glared at him as if he hadn’t realised the significance of what had happened at all.

“It worked,” Kageyama muttered, and Hinata’s eyes widened, argument forgotten as he jumped in the air with a whoop of excitement.

They kept experimenting, and now that he had done it once Kageyama realised he could do it again. At least sometimes. They spent hours up on the roof, flicking off pebbles and sticks and leaves.

“You know,” Hinata said as he sent a pebble flying over the edge, following it with his eyes until it hit the ground underneath, “I haven’t really been here that much longer than you.”

Hinata hadn’t really talked about why he was here, but since it was a hospital Kageyama had kind of guessed he had been sick or something, so he hadn’t asked. Was it rude to ask a ghost how they died? He had no idea.

“I died like two weeks before you.”

Kageyama wasn’t sure if he should ask some kind of follow-up questions, but he wasn’t really that good at small talk, and around Hinata he didn’t really need to, which was nice.

“You wanna know what happened?” Hinata asked, forgoing his little pile of pebbles and sticks to crawl over to where Kageyama was sitting, plopping down right in front of him. Kageyama shrugged. If Hinata wanted to talk, he could listen, but he didn’t particularly need to know what had happened either. Hinata had died, so now he was here, haunting a hospital, waiting for whatever came later.

“It was like _so dramatic_ , like a movie or something. Kenma, he’s like my best friend I guess, and I were driving home from school, we were going to play videogames at his place, because he’d just bought this new game. Then there was this car coming towards us, and I think the guy was on his phone or something, but I can’t really remember, because suddenly he wasn’t in the other lane, but our lane, and Kenma tried to get away, but the car just _pwaa_ and we like spun around, and it was so much noise, and then I kinda don’t remember much.

“Apparently I was in a coma for like three weeks before I died, because the next thing I knew I was sorta sitting in the room, watching my parents, and Natsu—that’s my sister—standing by the bed, and they were crying, and I couldn’t figure out why, until I saw myself in the bed. Like woah, it was so weird to see myself with like cuts and bruises all over, and they were just crying, and I didn’t get why until a nurse said she was sorry for their loss, and I kind of understood what had happened.”

Kageyama listened in silence as Hinata told him about it. Hinata’s death had been so different from his own. Kageyama had waited for it to come, had been preparing it for months, but Hinata’s was so sudden. One moment he was going to play videogames, and the next he was a ghost. Kageyama stared down at his hands, saw them clench against his thighs. He hadn’t even noticed.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

Hinata smiled, but it wasn’t his usual grin, rather something softer that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It wasn’t you driving that other car,” he said with a shrug.

“Are you sad that you died?” Kageyama asked.

“Well, yes I guess? Like, I had all these plans, and now I can’t really do any of them? And I’m sad because it made my family sad, and I didn’t like seeming them like that. And I think maybe Kenma blames himself, so I’m sad that I can’t be there to cheer him up."

Kageyama looked down at the ground, thinking maybe he should comfort Hinata, but not really knowing how.

XXX

A few weeks later Kageyama was sitting on the roof again, but this time he was alone. He had his back against an aluminium pipe, his knees tucked to his chest and his face buried in his arms. He had spent most of his new existence as a ghost alongside Hinata, but he had needed some time alone, and even if the other nurses and patients couldn’t see him, he only truly felt alone up here where there was nothing but the roof and the sky and the faint glow of the city.

He felt weird. He had been feeling weird for the last days, but it was extra weird today.

Hinata and he had spent the last days finding rooms where the patients or doctors were watching the Olympics now that the games were going on, paying attention to every single volleyball match. They commented on the games, which players were the best and which teams were likely to win. Hinata might not have played much volleyball himself, but he’d watched a lot, so they had long discussions on the games, and it was nice, but it made that weird feeling grow too.

At one point Kageyama’s dream had been to be standing on that court, proudly bearing the uniform of his country as he helped bring them to the top. The more he watched the more the knowledge that it would never happen sunk in, and the matches wasn’t as much fun anymore. It had become a little too much when they watched the last game of the night, the semi-finale between Japan and the US. Hinata kept grinning and pointing out the players he liked the best (which was always the spikers).

Kageyama grew silent as he watched the ball be received and tossed and spiked expertly, imagining himself out there amongst the other players, being the one to toss the ball into perfect position for the spikers to set it on the other side. It was all he had ever wanted, and just because he had been one of the unlucky to get sick he’d never get to experience that. He was stuck in this stupid hospital doing nothing all day, until maybe one day he got to go somewhere else, but maybe that was just as stupid as this.

As the second set ended, Japan winning it, leaving them at 1-1 in sets, Kageyama couldn’t take it anymore and rushed out of the room.

Hinata followed him, of course he did, but Kageyama snapped that he wanted to be alone, and as he rushed upstairs Hinata didn’t follow anymore.

That had been an hour ago, and Kageyama was still feeling awful. He hurt in his chest. Not like when he was sick, it was a different kind of hurt. _Sad, he was just really, really sad_ , he thought to himself. Kageyama wanted to play volleyball again, wanted to be alive again. It wasn’t fair, it really wasn’t. He was good at volleyball, everyone said so. _Too good_ , some said, but that was only because they couldn't keep up with his tosses.

Kageyama’s fingernails dug into his arms, and it was kind of nice that he felt a sort of dull pain. Not as sharp as it would’ve been when he was still human, but he could still feel something at least. He might be a ghost, might be dead, but he wasn’t completely gone yet.

Maybe it would've been better if he was just gone. Most people didn’t turn into ghosts, so he had no idea why he had. Most people just moved on to wherever you went after you died. If Kageyama had some sort of unfinished business to complete it was to play volleyball, and that wasn’t going to happen, so maybe he would have to spend eternity as a ghost.

He didn’t want to cry, but he really wanted to as well.

He didn’t hear it when Hinata came, because their feet didn't really make any sounds anymore. He only looked up when Hinata called his name. Kageyama rubbed dry eyes as he looked up at Hinata, about to yell at him for interrupting him when he saw what Hinata had under an arm.

“I know it’s not a proper volleyball, but I searched through the entire playroom, and this was the best I could find,” Hinata said as he held out a kid's rubber ball, garishly decorated with Disney characters. “Toss me?”

Kageyama felt something surge inside at those words, and before he knew it he was getting to his feet, holding out his hands for the ball. Hinata gave it to him, and Kageyama tested it in his hands. It wasn’t anything close to a volleyball, but it wasn’t that far off in size, and it was round, so maybe it’d work? He looked up at Hinata and nodded. Hinata broke into a wide grin and threw his arms in the air, giving a holler of excitement.

 

They decided to play on the roof, because even if there was the danger of the ball flying over the edge it was a big roof and at least no one would see a ball flying through the air on its own up here. Kageyama tossed the ball up and down a couple of times, testing the weight of it. Hinata was standing a bit away, bouncing with barely contained energy.

Kageyama tossed the ball into the air a final time, following it with his eyes through spread fingers as it started falling down again, and then he hit the ball towards Hinata.

It was lighter than his volleyballs, and he hadn’t accounted for that, so the ball flew too high, would pass right by Hinata. He was already preparing to make up for that on the next toss when Hinata _flew._ He didn’t jump as any other volleyball player, one moment he was on the ground, and the next he was high in the air, arm stretched up, higher, higher, higher. The palm of his hand slammed into the ball, sending it flying to the side. It was an awful spike, no control or aim at all, but Hinata had still managed to hit it.

Hinata dropped back to the roof, eyes wide and mouth forming an _'O'_ as he stared down at his palm, seemingly as surprised he had hit the ball as Kageyama was. He looked up, face a big grin as he hollered for _more tosses, more tosses, please Kageyama_.

Kageyama wasn’t sure, but he thought maybe that was the exact moment he fell in love with Hinata Shouyou.

XXX

Kageyama was sitting on a bench outside the hospital. Hinata and he had long since explored how far they could go outside, and had found that fifty metres past the walls were about it. It wasn’t like there was a wall or anything; it just… wasn’t possible to walk further. They couldn’t really explain it.

Hinata poked his head out the wall above him, and Kageyama tilted his head back to look at him for a moment. “Where did you go?” he asked as Hinata stepped out of the wall, right through his head as if that wasn’t rude at all and sat down next to him.

“They were showing this new anime on the TV in the playroom, so I wanted to check it out.”

“Was it good?”

“Yeah! It was all bwah and pwah!” Shouyou’s arm went through Kageyama’s chest as he threw it out to demonstrate just how bwah it was. Kageyama frowned down at the arm until Shouyou pulled it away again with a sheepish grin.

It had been about two months since Kageyama had died. Time kind of bleed together when there weren’t any school or anything else they had to do, so he wasn't completely sure. They had spent the majority of that time together, but sometimes Hinata would run off to do something, and sometimes Kageyama just needed to be alone for a while. It was kind of nice, or at least as nice it could get, this ghost life of theirs. When it got boring to roam the halls they went to the roof to play volleyball, and they were slowly getting better at it. Hinata’s jumps were still impressive, as was his speed, but his aim was awful, so they had a lot of work to do still. Kageyama didn’t think too much about the fact that they didn’t really have anything to work towards.

Kageyama rubbed the palms of his hands against his thighs, running the linen pants up and down a little. He wasn’t sure what he thought about the clothes, apparently all ghosts just woke up wearing the same thing rather than what they died in, which was probably a good thing, because it would’ve been embarrassing haunting the hospital together with Hinata with his ass hanging out. He’d also come to the conclusion that they somehow woke up looking like they had looked _earlier_. Before the accidents or illnesses that claimed them. Hinata didn’t have any wounds of a car crash, and Kageyama was free of bruises, and he wasn’t the skinny thing he had been at the end either, when his body hadn’t been able to process food and his muscles faded away. He looked like he still played volleyball, strong and healthy. Which was maybe ironic considering he was dead and all.

Kageyama looked at Hinata. The sun was shining on him, making his orange hair even more vibrant. Hinata was looking at Kageyama as well, amber eyes sparkling. He was pretty. Kageyama hadn’t told him that, because Hinata would probably be really angry. Hinata wasn’t handsome or sexy or anything like that, he was pretty. Big eyes, unruly curls, the faintest traces of freckles that he only ever saw in the sun like now.

He hadn’t really told Hinata about the fact that he was maybe in love with him, because he wasn’t sure how to say it without sounding really stupid. He had, however, thought about what Hinata would do if he had told him. On bad days he thought Hinata would laugh at him, and then never want to talk to him again, on good days he imagined Hinata kissing him.

Kageyama hadn’t really kissed anyone before, apart from when they played some game at a school party once, and that didn’t really count. He had been too busy with volleyball to think about stuff like girlfriends or boyfriends and kissing. He was starting to think about it a lot now though. Like _a lot_ a lot. He really wanted to kiss Hinata.

He had maybe, kind of, practiced. He was getting the hang of this whole touching business, and if he concentrated really well he could lift up pencils and carry them across the room. He had done it enough times with the nurse’s pencils that they’d started wondering, so then he moved on to doing it with other stuff he found. He could maybe hold his focus for two minutes now, which maybe wasn’t going to be a very long kiss, but it would also maybe be long enough. Besides, they could always kiss more times. If Hinata wanted to. Kageyama thought maybe he wanted to, but he wasn’t sure.

“I’m so glad you died!” Hinata exclaimed, only to realise what he’d said a moment later, immediately launching into apologies.

Kageyama just watched him, watched those curls bounce around as he bowed repeatedly. He knew how soft that hair was, and he’d maybe like to touch it again.

“Hinata,” Kageyama said, but Hinata kept apologising.

“Shouyou,” Kageyama said instead, and Hinata instantly shut up, straightening his back and looking at Kageyama with a surprised look on his face. They’d never used their first names for each other, but the blush on Hinata’s cheeks told him that maybe he should use it again.

Kageyama was just going to do it; he was going to kiss Hinata.

He rubbed his hands against his pants again, even if he didn’t sweat anymore, so there really wasn’t any need.

“Sho…” He chickened out. “Hinata. Close your eyes.” He heard his voice come out a little too gruff, but Hinata didn't seem to notice.

He couldn’t do this if Hinata was watching. He was nervous enough as it was.

Hinata closed his eyes.

Kageyama leaned in a bit, and then stopped again. “Focus on your face,” he said. It wouldn't really work if only he became corporeal.

Hinata opened his eyes again, looking suspicious. “Are you going to punch me?”

“I’m not going to punch you, idiot!” Kageyama snapped. He was already nervous and didn’t have the patience to deal with Hinata being all weird now.

“Don’t call me idiot, stupid Kageyama,” Hinata snapped right back, eyes narrowing.

“Just, close your eyes and focus on your face okay, I wanna try something.”

Hinata still looked suspicious, but he closed his eyes, and after a moment he nodded. “Okay, I’m doing it, but if you punch me I’m not going to—”

Kageyama interrupted him by leaning in and kissing him, right on the mouth. Hinata’s mouth was open, so he kind of only hit his bottom lip, but he had the time to notice that it was soft before he stumbled forward, right through Hinata.

He pulled back, eyes wide as he realised that he had done it, he had just kissed Hinata. Shit! How was Hinata going to react?

Hinata opened his eyes and blinked, looking like a confused owl. His mouth was still open, and there was a blush rising in his face. “Did you just..?”

“Yeah,” Kageyama said.

“Whaaa..!” Hinata said, eyes widening in shock or surprise or both.

Kageyama was suddenly really, really embarrassed, so he looked away, wondering why he had just done it like that. He should have told Hinata he liked him first, because now Hinata was going to think he was really weird, and maybe not even talk to him again.

“Why?” Hinata asked.

Kageyama sputtered. “Dumbass, why would you ask that?”

“Don’t call me dumbass! You are the one who just _kissed me!_ _”_

Kageyama crossed his arms and looked away. He did not want to talk about this, no thank you.

“Kageyaaaamaaaa,” Hinata whined. Kageyama did not look at him.

A hand waved in front of his face and Kageyama ignored it.

“Kageyamaaaaa,” Hinata whined again. “You can’t just gwah and then nothing! Tell me why, please please please?”

“Idiot, I’m not going to tell you anything,” Kageyama scoffed. His cheeks were probably read by now, but if he just kept looking away Hinata wouldn’t notice.

“Do you like me?” Hinata asked, and Kageyama froze. He kind of wanted to say yes just to get it out of the way, but he was too embarrassed. Kissing Hinata would be enough for a day. “If that’s what you are embarrassed for it’s okay, because I like you too.”

Kageyama snapped towards Hinata. He was met with a bright smile.

“I thought you knew?” Hinata continued.

“How could I know that?” Kageyama grumbled.

“Because I hang out with you all the time, and because you toss me,” Hinata said as if that was reason enough.

“You only do that because there’s barely anyone else to hang with, and because there’s no one else to toss you at all.”

“No, I do that because I like Kageyama,” Hinata said, emphasising it with a large nod.

Kageyama had no idea what to say, but his insides were all fluttery and weird, and his face felt all warm.

“Kiss me again?” Hinata said.

Kageyama hesitated.

“Please kiss me again, Kag—. Tobio,” Hinata said, and the flutters in Kageyama's stomach turned into a full on storm as he heard Hinata use his first name.

Hinata crawled up on the bench so he was sitting on his knees, facing Kageyama. He lifted a hand towards him, hovering right by his cheek. Kageyama found himself nodding as he leaned into the touch, pouring all his focus on keeping corporeal. Hinata’s fingers were soft against his cheek, and then Hinata leaned closer and pressed his lips against his, and it was soft and warm, and this time their lips lined up perfectly. They pressed together, neither really knowing how to do this. Kageyama didn’t care; it was still good, because he was kissing Hinata.

He was pressing closer, and then suddenly Hinata was falling through him with a yelp of surprise. He scrambled back so he could look at Kageyama again, and for a moment they just stared at each other, but then laughter bubbled up inside them.

Kageyama would have never imagined that his first proper kiss would be with a ghost, and he had no idea what was going to happen, how long he would even be around before moving on to wherever he was moving on to, but as long as he had Hinata here he thought he was going to be okay.

The rest of the day was spent laughing and arguing and practicing kissing. By the time they both faded away to the next life, hand in hand, they had gotten really good at it.


End file.
